This is the first daily recap I’ll have from the Nashville Film Festival. I don’t have I can guarantee how regular they’ll be, but I’ll try to have them up daily. Keep checking this blog for updates and don’t forget to follow @CoreyTuskMovies on Twitter.

“Mud” (****)

An adventure story that crackles in the way good Southern literature does, Jeff Nichols’ “Mud,” his third film, features vivid characters, a gripping, constantly involving story and tremendous, note-perfect performances from its primary cast, which makes it a pretty perfect way to kick off a film festival, though now I’m worried that nothing else will live up to it for me here at the 2013 Nashville Film Festival (but here’s hoping). All I can say for sure now is that Nichols, following up his great debut “Shotgun Stories” and his even better second film “Take Shelter,” has surely proven himself to be one of the most exciting new directors out there, and that’s only after three films.

Matthew McConaughey has had a hell of a couple of years, turning in great performances in “The Lincoln Lawyer,” “Magic Mike” and “Killer Joe,” but his work in “Mud” might be his best performance yet. And he’s mostly paired up in this film with two child actors, including the film’s young lead, Tye Sheridan, whose face you might remember from Terrence Malick’s film “The Tree of Life” (in which he’s the young O’Brien brother who has the least to do). It’d be hard to look at “The Tree of Life” and suspect Sheridan is the actor capable of the range he displays here, but “Mud” would not work at all were it not for the interplay between McConaughey and Sheridan being totally believable, and it is.

McConaughey plays the titular character, whom young Ellis (Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland, whose suspicious asides are the source of much of the film’s humor) discover living in a boat washed up on an island in the middle of the Mississippi River one summer afternoon. Mud is a charismatic drifter who spins the boys a tale about his true love, Juniper, and chivalric notions that Ellis, as we see, buys into — after all, his parents (the always great Ray McKinnon and Sarah Paulson) are heading toward a divorce. Mud also seems to be keeping watch over his shoulder, and not only for the police.

But Ellis learns that things are never as cut and dry as they seem between white knights and damsels in distress when he meets Juniper (Reese Witherspoon) and learns of the trouble that made Mud a fugitive. These questions and the pace at which they are answered are so perfectly calibrated by Nichols, working from his own script, throughout that it’d be a shame to reveal anything here, such as how Ellis’ neighbor (Sam Shepard), living across the river, ties into things.

“Mud” ends up, other than being a tremendously exciting story, as another examination of Southern masculinity from Nichols, this time related to how men and women treat each other, from the eyes of a young boy trying to learn how to do that from a handful of role models that probably aren’t the best. As all young men do, he eventually figures it out for himself, but the road’s a tough one. Tie in all the symbolism about birds, snakes and the loss of houseboat living and you’ve got enough to parse out on a second viewing, if you didn’t want to see it again already because the story’s so damn good, so sweet-natured and funny and gripping. I’ll be stunned if this isn’t whole-heartedly embraced by teenagers, those in search of an authentic representation of the Southern thing and, well, pretty much anyone who loves movies.

Next: Day 2 brings the new Alain Resnais film—yep, he’s still kicking—a documentary about the Beatles’ longtime secretary, the new film from “Smashed” director James Ponsoldt and a horror film from Spanish director Adrian Garcia Bogliano. Stay tuned.

About This Blog

This is the first daily recap I’ll have from the Nashville Film Festival. I don’t have I can guarantee how regular they’ll be, but I’ll try to have them up daily. Keep checking this blog for updates and don’t forget to follow @CoreyTuskMovies on Twitter.

“Mud” (****)

An adventure story that crackles in the way good Southern literature does, Jeff Nichols’ “Mud,” his third film, features vivid characters, a gripping, constantly involving story and tremendous, note-perfect performances from its primary cast, which makes it a pretty perfect way to kick off a film festival, though now I’m worried that nothing else will live up to it for me here at the 2013 Nashville Film Festival (but here’s hoping). All I can say for sure now is that Nichols, following up his great debut “Shotgun Stories” and his even better second film “Take Shelter,” has surely proven himself to be one of the most exciting new directors out there, and that’s only after three films.

Matthew McConaughey has had a hell of a couple of years, turning in great performances in “The Lincoln Lawyer,” “Magic Mike” and “Killer Joe,” but his work in “Mud” might be his best performance yet. And he’s mostly paired up in this film with two child actors, including the film’s young lead, Tye Sheridan, whose face you might remember from Terrence Malick’s film “The Tree of Life” (in which he’s the young O’Brien brother who has the least to do). It’d be hard to look at “The Tree of Life” and suspect Sheridan is the actor capable of the range he displays here, but “Mud” would not work at all were it not for the interplay between McConaughey and Sheridan being totally believable, and it is.

McConaughey plays the titular character, whom young Ellis (Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland, whose suspicious asides are the source of much of the film’s humor) discover living in a boat washed up on an island in the middle of the Mississippi River one summer afternoon. Mud is a charismatic drifter who spins the boys a tale about his true love, Juniper, and chivalric notions that Ellis, as we see, buys into — after all, his parents (the always great Ray McKinnon and Sarah Paulson) are heading toward a divorce. Mud also seems to be keeping watch over his shoulder, and not only for the police.

But Ellis learns that things are never as cut and dry as they seem between white knights and damsels in distress when he meets Juniper (Reese Witherspoon) and learns of the trouble that made Mud a fugitive. These questions and the pace at which they are answered are so perfectly calibrated by Nichols, working from his own script, throughout that it’d be a shame to reveal anything here, such as how Ellis’ neighbor (Sam Shepard), living across the river, ties into things.

“Mud” ends up, other than being a tremendously exciting story, as another examination of Southern masculinity from Nichols, this time related to how men and women treat each other, from the eyes of a young boy trying to learn how to do that from a handful of role models that probably aren’t the best. As all young men do, he eventually figures it out for himself, but the road’s a tough one. Tie in all the symbolism about birds, snakes and the loss of houseboat living and you’ve got enough to parse out on a second viewing, if you didn’t want to see it again already because the story’s so damn good, so sweet-natured and funny and gripping. I’ll be stunned if this isn’t whole-heartedly embraced by teenagers, those in search of an authentic representation of the Southern thing and, well, pretty much anyone who loves movies.

Next: Day 2 brings the new Alain Resnais film—yep, he’s still kicking—a documentary about the Beatles’ longtime secretary, the new film from “Smashed” director James Ponsoldt and a horror film from Spanish director Adrian Garcia Bogliano. Stay tuned.